Monday, May 30, 2016

My minis haven't been featured on the blog much, so I thought it might be fun to do a little photoshoot with them. Also, I wanted to test out the "portrait" mode on my camera, and I thought they might be good little subjects for it.

Anyway, I took a bunch of pictures, and I'm really proud of them. Enjoy!

You can just tell the minis are best friends!

Be careful up there, Mini M-G!

This one is Marie-Grace's new profile picture in "Meet the Dolls". Check it out!

Kirsten always wears this little purple hairband as a necklace because Hazel also has a mini Kirsten and we have to be able to tell them apart. It never lies flat, though, which can get a little annoying.

What are you looking at, olly Molly? This is her new profile picture.

I love this one too.

I hope you enjoyed looking at these pictures; I'm super proud of them. Thanks for reading!

Oh, and happy Memorial Day! I'm giving a big thank you to those who died serving our country.

Sunday, May 29, 2016

Wow, has it really been that long since the last episode? I guess with all the end-of-school stuff, I've been busy. Anyway, enjoy!

The
group home lobby was noisy and crowded, and Aevlia could hear no less
than four kids complaining about how they couldn't find their luggage.

Mrs. Weston was getting frustrated.

But Aevlia was just happy. It was
almost time to load the vans for camp! She had been waiting for this
moment for two-and-a-half weeks.

Meanwhile,
Mrs. Weston was trying to organize everyone into groups for which vans
they would be riding to camp in. As the four white vans pulled up in
front of the building, she reminded the children to check that they had
all their things. The older kids checked their bags and the younger
ones, who had all gathered as well to see the big kids off, looked more
than slightly miffed.

Aevlia
looked down- new overnight bag with purple handles and a butterfly,
packed with clothes and a toothbrush and other necessities? Check.
Jellyroll made up of her blue mattress pad, plaid blanket, and blue
pillow? Check.

so she looked at Lico. "Be good while I'm gone, okay? And try not to
miss me too much, and remember to ask Charlotte if you need anything."

"Okay," Lico said somberly.

"Aw,
cheer up," said Aevlia. "It's only a week, you'll be alright. And
you'll have fun, remember the trips Mrs. Weston has planned?"

Lico forced a smile. "Bye, Aevlia."

"Bye, Lico!" Aevlia had to yell, because the mass of camp-bound kids was moving out the door.

"Bye!"

And Aevlia shouldered her bag, and looked ahead.

"Sit
down already!" someone yelled at Aevlia.

She had been looking around
the van she had been assigned to, looking for someone she knew to sit
with, but it was all kids she didn't know. Laura must have been on a
different van.

Oh well. The other kids were getting impatient to leave,
so Aevlia, who had already left her things in the back of the van, sat
down in an empty seat.

After
a few minutes, the chaperones started the vans up, and the
eleven-and-ups of the Esther Bridgely Home for Children were off to
camp.

Aevlia made sure her seat belt was buckled,

then looked around to
see who she was sitting with.

A blonde girl wearing an oversized
T-shirt, and a green-eyed boy in a cool brown jacket.

The boy must have
noticed Aevlia looking at him, because he said, "Hi."

"Hi," Aevlia said back.

"I'm Dylan. From MacIntosh Room."

"I'm Aevlia Arden. I think I saw your name on the sign-up list!"

"Prob'ly."

"Hey, what's your name?" Aevlia asked the girl, who was looking at a book.

"Sylvie.
Hunter." She went back to her book. Not the talkative type, Aevlia
thought. The girl, Sylvie, didn't seem mean, just quiet.

Then
Dylan pulled something glossy and colorful out of his pocket. A camp
brochure! Smooth and unwrinkled, unlike the ones that had been at Mrs.
Weston's desk.

"Where did you get that?" Aevlia asked, and Sylvie looked over too. Dylan just winked and unfolded the brochure to look at it.

It
suddenly struck Aevlia that she didn't actually know the name of the
camp. Mrs. Weston hadn't ever mentioned it, and Aevlia hadn't looked too closely at the brochures when she had signed up. She tried to look
over Dylan's shoulder at his brochure.

"Camp Lirii Hollow, huh?"

She
hadn't realized that she had spoken aloud until Dylan said, "Yeah,
that's what they call it. Camp Lirii Hollow." He had pronounced it
differently than she had. Dylan had said leer-eye, while Aevlia had said
it like lurr-ee. He seemed to know more about it than she did, though,
so she went with his way.

"Sure is a funny name," Sylvie commented. "Lirii. Is that, like, some Native American tribe?"

"Actually,
it says the story right here on the back," said Dylan, turning around
the brochure. He began to read, "Camp Lirii Hollow is set back in the
wilderness, away from the hustle and bustle of everyday life. We are
located on nearly 55 acres of beautiful forested land. The camp's name
comes from the legend of the Lirii, a small band of elf-like humanoid
creatures that protect the environment and supposedly live in the area,
watching over the camp. Although Lirii are not real, the legend
nevertheless lives on in the name and the spirit of the camp, and we
hope to continue enjoying the land for years to come."

"Neat," said Aevlia. "Little creatures watching over the camp."

"They're not real or anything," Dylan said, "but, yeah, I guess it is a cool story."

After
that, Aevlia, Dylan, and Sylvie were quiet for the rest of the two-hour
ride, finding themselves with nothing else to say.

Eventually, Sylvie
dozed off,

and Dylan just stared into the distance.

Aevlia rested her
head against her shoulder and fingered her flower necklace. A strange
feeling, like dèja vu, seemed to have taken hold of her, but she
couldn't remember what, if anything, from this day had happened before.

The
van lurched as it climbed onto an unpaved gravel road, if you could
even call it that. Sylvie awoke, and a gang of rowdy boys in the back of
the van yelled, "Wah!" at every bump, which meant about every second,

but when the van bounced over a large rock, Aevlia was screaming with
the rest of them. The chaperone up front was quickly growing annoyed,
but who cared? The van swerved around another bend, following the line
of vans in front of it, and suddenly, a big paper sign swung into view.
WELCOME TO CAMP LIRII HOLLOW!!! it proclaimed. Every kid on the van
threw their hands up in the air and cheered. "Yessss!" a boy in back
named Dwight hissed. "Woot, woot!" Dylan whooped. "YEAH!" cried Regan,
another name Aevlia had seen on the sign-up list. "Yaaayyy!" Amanda and
Presley, two girls who were sisters, screamed. Everyone was excited.
Then the vans stopped, the chaperones slid open the door to each van,
and the kids piled, screaming, out into the sun. They all raced to the
back of each van, where the chaperones were unlocking the trunks so each
kid could snatch out their luggage.

In all the commotion, Aevlia forgot
to slip her necklace back under her shirt, and it hung there around her
neck, gleaming a little too brightly in the afternoon sun.

Mrs.
Weston talked to the kids about good behavior, and the pickup plans,
and everything else that they probably already knew. Then she talked to
the teenage counselor running the camp check-in desk. "These are the
group home kids?" the counselor asked, flipping her long braid over her
shoulder.

"Yep," Mrs. Weston nodded.

"Good. Do you have all the paperwork we sent you?"

Mrs.
Weston handed a thick white binder to the counselor, who looked through
it and nodded. "Now if you'll just have the kids come up one by one and
tell their names and ages, we'll get them signed in in a jiffy."

Mrs.
Weston herded the excited kids into a line,

and Aevlia ended up behind a
short girl with long brown hair, who, at her turn, told the counselor
her name was 'Marie Hunter'. 'Hunter,' Aevlia thought. 'She must be in
the same room as Sylvie from the van!'

Marie
drifted away, and now it was Aevlia's turn.

"Now, your name and age,
please," said the counselor, whose name-tag read 'Bree'.

"Aevlia Arden, twelve."

Bree
flipped through a battered, bright-orange binder and nodded. "Perfect.
You'll be in Cabin 3." The counselor pointed to a bare-wood cabin with a
sign announcing, "Cabin 3 is the best!"

She passed Aevlia a name-tag
with her name on it,

and Aevlia pinned it to her shirt. "Have fun!"
Counselor Bree said.

Aevlia grabbed her stuff and headed for Cabin 3. "Oh, I will."

I hope you enjoyed it! And hopefully the title makes a little more sense now, though it will make even more sense later. The plot hasn't taken off much yet, but it will get weirder, I promise!

About Me

Hi, I'm Lissie, and welcome to my blog! I love dolls, games, and telling stories. Thanks for stopping by! P.S. If you know me, please don't share any personal info, like my name or age, in the comments. My family prefers to stay private.